Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 396th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere … Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (26 October-1 November, 2014), together with a hand-picked quintet, you might otherwise have missed.

Don’t forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging.

As ever, let’s start with the most popular post, and work our way down:

1. Why it’s unacceptable to say Africans don’t know what a toilet is by Lester Holloway on Lester Holloway .
A post sparked off b controversy here.

2. Mike Hancock: Not an MP but on the Lib Dem benches by Charlotte Henry on Charlotte Henry.
Malcolm Bruce does not exactly look delighted about it.

3. Russell Brand wants to stand for Mayor of London. If he’s prepared to grow up, the Liberal Democrats might have him by Rich Clare on A Brief History of Liberty.
Hmmm. We’d have to overlook serial misogyny and lack of being a liberal. Not sure I’d welcome him.

4. Keeping the Liberal Democrats on the straight and narrow by Peter Wrigley on A Keynsian Liberal.
Peter rebukes a Liberal Democrat PPC for blaming Labour for the economic mess.

5. Richard and I are married! Maius intra qua extra by Alex Wilcock on Love and Liberty.
And by all accounts it was a truly amazing, happy, wonderful day. And there was a reading with 90 Doctor Who references. Can you recognise any?

6. Stephen Tall, thought provoking rather than completely right by Mark Pack on Mark Pack.
Former co-editors in Twitter spat! And it gets into the Independent

7. Malcolm Bruce’s letter exposes nature of Lib Dem/Tory relationship by Andrew Page on A Scottish Liberal.
Malcolm talks tough: The Liberal Democrats will not be used as a shield between the Conservative leadership and its backbenchers.

And now to the five blog-posts that come highly recommended, regardless of the number of Aggregator click-throughs they attracted. To nominate a Lib Dem blog article published in the past seven days – your own, or someone else’s, all you have to do is drop a line to [email protected]. You can also contact us via Twitter, where we’re @libdemvoice

8.Federal Party Committee Elections: Master Post of Doom by Jennie Rigg on Nothing is more important than my egomania.
Jennie has asked all 100 plus candidates for the committee elections some questions. This is the master post so you can find who’s replied.

9. The later adventures of Jackie Ballard by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England.
News of a much loved former Liberal Democrat MP for Taunton.

10. Kidzania: Let your kids discover the value of workism by Nick Barlow on What you can get away with.
Half term day out? Don’t think so.

11. Defining the challenge of UK housing policy by Alex Marsh on Alex’s Archives.
People don’t see housing as an important issue so we need to convince them poor housing is at the root of their other concerns.

12. . Radical Liberalism: the lost political tradition by Paul Hindley on Positive Liberty.
” A new democratic globalisation based on radical liberalism is needed to hold the global corporate elite to account.”

As your bonus this week, this doesn’t come from a Lib Dem but from an old blogging colleague and friend of mine, Malc, who is suffering from Depression. He’s written a post for the Better Nation blog which he co-founded in 2010 in which he shares his experience. I think, usefully, he talks about how he first realised something wasn’t right. Last year at Scottish Conference, Ewan Hoyle said that we should all be taught how to recognise if our mental health was starting to deteriorate to get the earliest possible help.

And that’s it for another week. Happy blogging ‘n’ reading ‘n’ nominating.

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* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings